


Trembling Hands, Steady Gun

by Anonymous



Category: Original Work
Genre: Death, March for Our Lives, Rant Piece, School Shootings, uncc shooting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:08:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24699598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: A rant piece about school shootings that I really needed to get off my chest.
Kudos: 3
Collections: anonymous





	Trembling Hands, Steady Gun

So. So. At work, earlier today, without any prompting, a customer started telling me why my generation should stop talking about gun control, should stop talking about school shootings.

(I did nothing to encourage this. I did not say anything to this man. I did not want to talk about this.)

He went on for fifteen minutes, and I went into a panic attack as soon as he left.

Because how do you respond to that? How do you respond to someone telling you to get over a generational nightmare?

How do I explain to him, to anyone, that one of the kids that I mentored in high school was in the classroom at the UNCC shooting? That when the news broke, I couldn’t check in with her, because I had no idea where she was. I had no idea if her phone was on, if, in trying to check on her, I gave away her position. If I was killing her.

She knew Riley Howell, the student who stopped the gunman. She credits him with having saved her life. Every time I see her, every time we talk, I think about him. About the fact that I almost lost her. About the fact that I got lucky. Because some people were lost that day.

The answer is, I don’t know. I don’t know how to explain that to people, how to explain that a man I never knew, is one of the biggest reasons I stood up, walked out, and marched.

There’s no way I can say that, not really.

Not at all.

**Author's Note:**

> I’m sorry.


End file.
